Date of Birth: 2nd June 1931

Place of Birth: London

Date Interviewed: 14th September 2009

Summary: Tom O’Keefe and his twin brother were born in London. They were both evacuated to Wiltshire during WW2 but the elderly couple they stayed with couldn’t handle them and they returned home. Their mother then brought them to Wexford. Their father went missing, presumed dead, when their apartment block was bombed. When their mother died an aunt brought them back to London, although Tom wanted to stay in Wexford. Tom signed on for a nine year spell in the navy when he was sixteen. He was based on a destroyer where they were “packed in like sardines”. His ship took part in a naval engagement near Korea. On leaving the navy Tom got married and joined the merchant navy, working on oil tankers. An opportunity came up to join Irish Lights and Tom worked on lightships, spending several years based off the Wexford coast. Tom describes the hardships the lightship men endured, from winter storms to the monotony of the daily routine.